White House Fact Check Dismantles Press Ban Outrage With Obama’s Own Record

The White House is defending President Donald Trump’s decision to remove CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House grounds, arguing that the First Amendment protects the press’s right to publish but does not guarantee individual news organizations access to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. 

In a statement Monday titled “White House Access Is a Privilege — Not a Right,” the White House said Trump removed the three outlets after what it called “years of false reporting.” The administration argued that access to the White House, including hard passes, briefing-room seats, and positions in the press pool, is subject to administration rules.

“Access changes are nothing new. What is new, however, is the sudden claim that it becomes sacred only when the outlets are friendly to the Radical Left. The rule was never ‘every outlet gets in.’ It was always ‘our side stays in,’” the statement said. 

The statement then stretched back into history, citing conflicts between Democratic administrations and conservative news organizations. It cited the Obama White House’s attempts to sideline Fox, the Justice Department’s investigation of Fox News correspondent James Rosen, the seizure of Associated Press telephone records, and the Biden administration’s moves to isolate conservative outlets. 

A Media Research Center analysis found that 92.2% of coverage about Trump’s administration on ABC, NBC, and CBS evening newscasts during the first 80 days of his second term were negative, compared with 59% positive coverage during the same period of President Joe Biden’s term.

“No President is required to host a hostile operation on the grounds. Access has always been a privilege, and President Trump is applying that rule,” the White House said hours after Fox News pulled the plug on presidential pool coverage, joining CNN and other networks in a show of solidarity. 

On Monday morning, Fox News D.C. Bureau Chief Bryan Boughton, who currently serves as the rotating chair of the presidential television pool, informed pool members that coverage would be suspended, writing in an email: “This is to advise that, effective today, the TV pool will not be covering events designated as pool coverage of the President.”

“This follows the White House’s position preventing CNN from fulfilling its assigned pool duties. There will be no replacement pool put in place,” Boughton said. 

The move marks a rare rebuke from Fox News and comes directly in response to Trump’s announcement Friday that he was banning CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House. Trump accused the three Left-wing news organizations of repeatedly publishing what he called “FAKE NEWS.”

“Media Outlets shouldn’t be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES when they’re covering the President of the United States, the Trump Administration, or the United States of America,” Trump wrote.

In a joint statement with ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN, Fox News Media criticized the Trump White House. “The public has a vital interest in receiving accurate, independent information about its government. No administration should restrict a news organization because it objects to its reporting.”  

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